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Does Yandere Simulator really need a small town?

In 2015 and 2016, I asked fans for a lot of feedback, but rarely did I ever make videos acknowledging that feedback or announcing how it would affect the game moving forward. I was planning to make a “Tying Up Loose Ends” video, where I’d finally address many of the subjects that never received proper closure in 2015 or 2016. As I started writing out the script for this video, I realized that one specific topic – the subject of adding a small town into Yandere Simulator – was so multifaceted that I could create an entire video about that one subject alone. So, here’s a video about that one issue!

I was hoping that I’d be able to work on Osana from Jan 23rd to Jan 30th…but it didn’t work out that way. I overestimated how much attention the Twitch video would get. A LOT of people contacted me to speak about Twitch. Some of them were former employees, some of them were current employees, some of them were friends of employees. None of them were an official Twitch spokesperson. I still don’t have a concrete answer for why the game was banned, or if anything can be done about it…but I did learn many things about Twitch. Some of this information is what prompted me to spend another day making another video about Twitch.

Speaking with people about the Twitch issue ate up a lot of my time over the past 10 days, and so I didn’t get to make the kind of progress that I wanted to make. I don’t regret this at all, since I think it was important for me to invest some time into this issue, but I’m sure that a lot of people are going to be angry with me for letting it take up my time. Please allow me to explain my point of view:

Twitch is the 39th most popular website in America, and one of the top 100 most popular websites on the Internet. Twitch is probably the biggest source of exposure for a game besides YouTube. Not being allowed on Twitch means that there are millions of people who will never learn that your game exists, and will never broadcast your game for others to see. This is a huge problem that any game developer would be concerned about. I believe it was worth my time to try and resolve the problem.

Over the past 10 days, I did make progress on Osana, but it wasn’t code-related progress. Let me give you some examples of how Osana progressed during that time:

New voiced lines and animations

Fixes/adjustments to previous animations

New elimination-related models and textures

Fixing buggy aspects of Osana’s Monday interaction with Senpai

Acquiring the assets necessary to implement the “other factor” that will make eliminating Osana more difficult

Over the past two weeks, I didn’t make anyprogress towards implementing another one of Osana/Senpai’s interaction events. This is extremely disappointing to me, but please keep in mind that I have a LOT more business to attend to than JUST Osana. Over the past two weeks, I was:

Fixing numerous critical bugs that were being reported

Speaking with animators/artists/modellers/composers/voice actors

Arranging a very special surprise that I’ll be able to unveil next month

Implementing a backlog of assets that volunteers have been sending me over the past few months

Speaking to a lot of people about the Twitch dilemma

Over the past ten days, there was not a single day that passed when my focus was not 100% on Yandere Simulator. Despite that, zero progress was made towards the next Osana/Senpai interaction event.

I am Yandere Simulator’s lead programmer, but I am also responsible for everything else about the game, too:

Developing Yandere Simulator is not as simple as sitting in a computer chair and writing code. There is a lot more do it than that. Sometimes an entire day will pass without a single opportunity to write any code at all, because I’m busy with other matters for 12 hours straight.

(…and then I check the comments section, and see people accusing me of being lazy…)

You can read more about this subject by clicking this link and scrolling down to where it says “Why is the game’s development so slow?”

New Build

There’s a new build today! Here’s a list of everything that’s new in it:

Added a loading screen that will appear whenever the school scene is loading. (The game engine stops updating the screen after loading reaches a certain percentage, so you won’t see the animation for very long…)

Students now walk into school wearing fancy shoes and change into “indoor shoes” once they are inside the school. (The current “indoor shoes” texture for male students is not final.)

Fixed bug that would allow Yandere-chan to perform a low-sanity attack animation loop indefinitely while surrounded by being confronted by a Hero or Teacher trying to confront her.

Fixed bug that would cause students to focus their attention on students who were reacting to Yandere-chan committing murder, rather than on Yandere-chan herself.

Fixed bug that would cause Heroic students or Teachers to run in place while waiting for Yandere-chan to finish an attack animation.

Revamped the code for the Credits sequence so that it is much easier for me to add names of volunteers to the credits.

Fixed bug that would cause Yandere-chan to freeze when killing students summoned by the turtle in the Light Music Club.

Fixed bug that would cause Senpai to appear bald if noticing Yandere-chan while wearing one of the newest hairstyles.

Replaced Ryuto’s voiced lines with new lines that more appropriately convey how I imagine his personality.

Fixed bug that would cause less than four students attempt to perform a group takedown on Yandere-chan.

Fixed bug that would allow a single witness to count as two witnesses if they witnessed two murders.

Fixed bug that would cause Senpai to seemingly ignore Yandere-chan as she was committing murder.

Attempted to fix several long hairstyles that clip into Yandere-chan’s back when she runs.

Fixed bug that gave Yandere-chan green pigtails during the Befriend/Betray cutscene.

Fixed bug that caused distracted students to never exit the “distracted” state.

Replaced the old Nemesis portrait and icons with a new portrait and icons.

Fixed bug that caused Koharu to appear bald after witnessing murder.

Gave colored stockings and colored panties to the Rainbow Six.

Added physics to the “Miku Hatsune” hair style.

Added eight new hairstyles for Yandere-chan.

Added two new accessories for Yandere-chan.

Added a new hairstyle for Senpai.

Improved Koharu’s hair texture.

Added two new easter eggs.

Updated the credits.

What’s next?

Plans are great…when they’re in your imagination. Plans burst into flames as soon as they touch the real world.

My planis to spend the next 2 weeks focusing as much time as possible on Osana. I have a surprise planned for Feb 14th, but it shouldn’t take up too much of my time between now and the next update.

396 thoughts on “Does Yandere Simulator really need a small town?”

Hmm maybe the thing it could be a street and internet u can do the internet first and tthe street next but when the street comes maybe maybe the internet will be slower and it would take such a long time and you have to wait real time so u can’t skip of course no one will do something like me

i honestly say i find games with a lot of time put into it is great, im not sure how much tension a year would do but if its just about the wait, i can do that look at the size of the map of The Crew, it took about years to develop and i am not bored of it, (fyi its map is around 3.5~4 times bigger than skyrims map and i have exactly 1990 hours spent on The Crew – proof http://steamcommunity.com/id/Phoach/ more space makes for a better exploration and way to hide things so i would love to see at least a small town

I wonder what Osana’s Tuesday interaction will be with Senpai… maybe it will involve her talking with Senpai near the East/West fountains. Maybe, Osana asks Senpai to leave her alone because her phone rings. I know originally her phone call was in the hall, but if you think about it, it could put her in a vulnerable state. You could potentially drown her. When Senpai comes back, he will discover her corpse. Quickly, dispose of the corpse and Senpai will assume she went home for the day because she felt sick. If Osana doesn’t arrive at school within the next 4 days or so, Senpai’s sanity will go down.

I was actually hoping there might be a school store? My high school had a small store and I see this in other Japanese high school games. I don’t think the town is necessary at all but I think most people picked the small town as a purchase option because out of the three it’s the most convenient and realistic but having a small town JUST for the small store is a waste of time in my opinion.

Not making the game obviously but my idea would be improvised weapons could be bought from the store (like scissors) or found in clubs (knife, sacrificial dagger), and actual weapons would be obtained from info-chan (katana).

Actually my high school has a small store, and it even sends out a cart of stock around both floors of the school. Students from each period are assigned to run the actual store, and then there are students who run the cart. I think a system like that would work well for the game if Yandere Dev doesn’t make a small town or a single street.

In My Highschool, there aren’t any stores, since it’s a rich private school, just like Yan-chan’s school, I kinda pictured Akedemi High to be a sophisticated school, which would explain the gardening club, the hedge maze, the swimming pool, the running track, etc. I think a cashier is the closest thing to a shop within the school, it would only be limited to school supplies, the street that Yan Dev was talking about would offer much more things such as, character customization, purchasing of illegal substances, more elimination methods, more potential weapons, more corpse-disposal methods, more events to sabotage, another place to explore, etc. I fail to see how all of this can be cramped into a store at school.

I picked she should go to the store for purchases, but I honestly think both the store AND ordering things off the internet should be options. I mean, you can do both in real life, and I think it would support both people who want to go out and see the world (such as it is) and people who just want to focus on the school-related bits of the game. Both should be feasible if the Yandere Simulator version of Amazon.com would only take a week, right?

I think having a small town would be nice to have, but if it will take too long then I don’t think it’s necessary. Like YandereDev said in his video about it, it could add much more ways to dispose of a body, not to mention new ways to murder students and get new weapons to do the deed, make money, and so on. However, there are various cons as well such as the obvious fact that the game will take more time to complete, and that while it can make the world feel more natural, it would be unwise to make it too large (personally, I got lost a lot, so maybe adding a map could help with this issue? Again, super obvious.) All I can say for certain is that it would be awesome to have new ways to murder or kidnap the students, and it might be possible to add a stealing element to take rival’s phones, but that if it takes too long to make personally I am content with the school environment. As long as Osana gets completed, I don’t care which one he chooses 🙂

I’m having trouble with one of the elimination methods, and I’m hoping someone can help me out.

Whenever I go to hit Kokona with the bucket full of dumbbells, it used to hit the target every time. Now, all it does is hit the ridge on the side of the school. Whether Yan-chan is standing still or I am pushing the appropriate key so that she is moving towards the railing, it will still hit the building, which causes the bucket to flip and MISS KOKONA ENTIRELY. What is happening?!

In regards to the above, I know this probably isn’t the right place to post something like this, but I don’t know where else to go. Just for clarification – I’m NOT looking for Yandere Dev’s help, but help from the Yandere Simulator community.

Maybe this is because Kokona now moves constantly during her calls, but I doubt that. That ridge on the building is quite an issue; maybe try standing in different positions every time and see if any work. If they all keep hitting the ridge, then you could send a bug report to YandereDev (remember to read the FAQ first to see if this is a known, ongoing problem). I hope I could be of assistance!

This a warning to all commenters, do not flood or spam his inbox with pointless and worthless emails. You’ll only make him grumpier and grumpier until he snaps. So please, leave email that will interest him and has new ideas, not ones that bores him and has old, out-of-date ones.

She should have to make money via pick pocketing/other illegal things and jobs, neither is sufficient by itself.
Also I think you should be required to learn charisma or psychology if you want to get a job as a waitress (example) Because of her nature, she would have no idea how to treat people with kindness so she woUnder have to learn to do so.

I don’t personally this part-time jobs are necessary. If money is needed (IMO) you should be able to trade deep, dark secrets or panty shots with Info-chan for money. She’d drop the pay envelope out the window like everything else.
I don’t actually LIKE suggesting things, but it’s an alternative to a job system.

I don’t think that’s going to work, because panty shots are a currency on their own. It would make no sense for Info-chan to give Yandere-chan money for something she’s going to sell, especially since Info-chan is able to blackmail Yandere-chan at any time. Just favors Yandere-chan wouldn’t be able to do on her own makes more sense, since Info-chan also benefits from them (school paper news). The job system is also basically an alternative for Info-chan’s services, since a lot of people dislike the panty shot mechanic and if you refuse Info-chan’s help there’s no need for that. Not saying that I think the job mechanic is necessary or not, I’m just implying if there’s going to be a currency other than panty shots, Info-chan’s basically going to be useless. Now, Info-chan shouldn’t be useless, since she’s an important character, so the job mechanic should be a challenge or take a longer time and panty shots should be the fastest way to get stuff/favors. That way the ones who don’t like panty shots can have an alternative and Info-chan can stay relevant for those who don’t mind panty shots and want to gain money easily. IF there’s going to be a job mechanic, I personally think it should be something along those lines.

Actually, Info-chan has clients who pay her for these, so a “cut” seemed appropriate to me. But is a uniform worth five times what she gets paid for one of them? Somehow, I don’t think it does.
I also proposed that she should be a kind of Information broker on another level, paying you for information that she couldn’t obtain herself. But the system is in place now, so I won’t ask for it to be changed. Just a thought I had.

I think to earn money, you should take illegal substances to school. (For example: cigarettes) With cigarettes, you could give them to Musume in exchange for some money. This is a suggestion, don’t take it seriously to the game’s development.

yandere dev i would like a job where you could have use sainty as a Mechanics like if a customer gets angry at you could go little more insane in a minigame if failed you get fired and lose reputation if done correctly you gain more reputation.

i know it would take a lot of time but try make it as simple as it can maybe like 2d or something

I think that Yandere Dev needs to do something with the school specificly You know how the students just sit in their class room and the teacher just watches them like a creep. Their should be an animation update where students actually write on paper, and the teacher just doesn’t stand there.

I like the idea of a single street more than an entire small town. It’s the added benefit of a different environment to play in, but it’s also not so large and complex to create. I don’t even go into the town now as it currently it just because I don’t like riding the bike. The controls are just hard to use for me and I spend more time trying to figure out how to get the bike unstuck from somewhere than actually looking through the town. I also like the idea of having to earn money to get some objects/helpful items instead of relying 100% on Info-Chan. It’s a good way to get specific items without having to use panty shots. Finally, screw people that accuse you of being lazy. It’s okay to take breaks and work on other things, you don’t have to justify that to anybody. Positive vibes, YandereDev! :3

it will b pretty cool to have a town or a single street in yandere sim so we would have more things to explore and things to do but if it adds more time you should work on that in ur spare time or when osana is complete…..lol

A whoel town isn’t needed but rather persona 4 style i think would be best. Select areas you travel to for stores or other interactions. But not a whole open world type thing. One street as a shopping district and then a place or two as possible ‘date’ locations for spying or body disposal places.

I love the idea of a part time job and shops. If an entire town is too much, just one street sounds like a fantastic plan. The game is far from boring, but I think having a street for shops, jobs and side missions would add a whole other level of interest to the game. You’re doing great, YandereDev! I absolutely love this game!!!

why there is an occult club at Akademi….
it would be discrimination against their freedom of religion and at this school the students make their club so if they said no to Oka Ruto they would be known as a school who discriminates. if you don’t believe me look up rights in japan.

I don’t see the benefits of a hole town, I just think shops/side-missions are important. Where the students exit the school there are some shops already, maybe re-model them to make them look more realistic and add a few interior designs! Senpai and your current rival may hang out there or be dating. You could sabotage a drink/meal that a girl will give to Senpai, similar to Osana’s Monday interaction with Senpai. Poison is too far beyond the line, maybe make it taste bad. I know Osana makes bento for Senpai and you can put emetic in it to make him puke, but that isn’t really necessary here. This is just an opinion/suggestion, don’t take it serious to the game’s development.

I think the poll on towns was badly worded.
No, I do not think a town is necessary for yandere sim to be enjoyable but i do think it would make the game MORE enjoyable and it would open up more elimination options & weapons ect to the player making their gaming experience more suited to how they want to play. Perhaps it wouldn’t ever be necessary to enter the town and small things such as pedestrians wouldn’t really need to be added but the town could also show how, while being sociopathic/psychopathic, yandere chan attempts to fit in and fools people into thinking she has innocent intentions. A small street would do for all purposes listed above as well

To conclude, yandere sim doesn’t need a town to be enjoyable but, in my opinion, a town would be a worthwhile thing to add

I think the polls worded badly.
Does yandere sim need a whole town to be enjoyable? No.
Would it be okay to have a single street full of stores? I love that idea, it’s so cute and gives the player options
Does yandere sim have to have a whole town? No, a single street is perfect. A whole town might be seen as pointless, but a single street is striaght forward and down to the point about having a single street

I suggest you finish with the core and simplest stuff first from the school setting + home + all the things you included and added into the school as well as the things you wish to implement as yandere simulator is just the beginning. After you finish with the school part and things related to it, you can make a yandere simulator 2 which you talked about (which is a great idea) and expand more on the town setting where you stalk senpai with rival-chan where you get to do more than just within school boundaries (part time jobs, taking pictures of rival-chan with other boys and blackmail her, etc.).

Take one step at a time man, no need to focus on the time consuming stuff first, that will only hinder your progress which you initially stated. It’s fine if the town is in beta because why not? More people will expect a town setting in YS (yandere simulator) 2 and all the new features like any other simulator game would because why not?

ps. we all know that us fellow yanderes would want a town setting included in YS but if others start to worry about the slow pace, then it’s not viable right now but in the next simulator, Yandere simulator 2..

The way the polls are geared you seem to want a town but this town unless you have a huge budget, the town will be boring and mostly eye candy and menus. Money, a job or a town isn’t necessary but I find your in game story may suffer because your really boxed in.
I’m more interested in the social AI between player and AI, also complete 4th wall breaks. AI to AI interaction. How the player can manipulate the environment. Controls, will you use VR? voice commands, motion controllers and all the fun stuff programmers do.
I like your idea and i’m jealous of your talent. Lovesick is a good name. You won’t read this… and i’m wasting my time…If you think you are frustrated imagine you had no talent and wanted to create this virtual world and that would land you in my shoes.

When you create an NPC do you want that character to seem alive and aware of you and keeping things lively and engaging, does seeing an NPC just stand their doing nothing make you angry?
When you talk to the NPC do you want to have a decent conversation that isn’t just a one line of dialog and being able on some primitive level to have a relationship or get to know them as if they were real?
A 10 year game from square enix doesn’t address the problem FF 15 and I doubt you will solve it but I have faith that maybe your talent exceeds genius levels and will use neural networks and C.N.N. to realize this dream of this broken old man.

There is a new update in 9 days as I’m posting this comment. It will come out on the 14th of February. I wonder what it will be… By the way, not much progress has been made on Osana, hopefully now that Yandere Developer has had much more time and didn’t have to take care of personal issues in his family, there should be much more progress on Osana.

“Does Yandere Simulator NEED a small town?”
Short, and rather obvious answer: No
Do some fans (including me) WANT a small town: Hell yes
But that’s not the main point. The main point is that YandereSim can BENEFIT from a small town (I could give examples but I doubt you’re interested). Over half the things YandereDev has put into the game so far were not required for the game to be good. The new school model, new elimination methods, the Easter Eggs, Mission Mode. All of this was never a requirement, but he did because he knew it would benefit the game, whether for replay value or catering to the masses or just out of pure enjoyment. In this same fashion, a small town could advance the game in terms of enjoyment and reaching your primary goal in YandereSim, which is to obtain Senpai by any means necessary.
Is this impossible without a small town: No
Would it make the game more enjoyable: Maybe, depending on who you are
Can it highly benefit Yandere Simulator: Absolutely

Personally, I’m of the opinion that less is more. Yandere Simulator doesn’t need a small town for anything! Adding extra eliminations and stalking opportunities to a town makes it, in function, just an extension of the school. I loved the idea for a single street for shops though

As for making money? The allowance idea is my favorite because it fits the theme of playing as a young teenager in school, and more importantly it makes loading out for the mission a tactical decision, and it doesn’t break the flow of the game. Anything more is just bloat to the money-making feature. Playing mini-games to earn money just makes it a chore you have to complete once a week, and the text-menu idea is functionally identical to the allowance except with more button-pressing.

I think a single street with everything you need is perfect, but the fact that Kokona goes to “Shisuta Town” makes me wanna see the actual town, maybe making some places where you can go from home or school could be a great idea, let’s say you have to go to a small park and stalk senpai on a date and then you can just have a small scenary with the park, ya know what im saying right?! But anyway, i can still wait for the game to be finished without any problem, so do what you think is best ~

I personally believe only adding a single street would be the smartest approach. A whole town would not only add much more time untill the games completion but is unnecessary. There are only a few shops that are needed and they could all be complied into one street. Having a whole town that the player would have to navigate through would be a hassle since you’d have to spend a lot of time going through many streets in search of your target location (even if there was a map this would still take awhile). With one street it would take far less time. Though a small town might be kind of cool since unique events could happen each day, like on the second week during Wednesday Senpai can be seen feeding birds on a bench, in the end it’s not the right path to take.

I honestly don’t see the school getting that boring or ever feeling that confining.

Right now the focus is on the rivals and core story, so its all about gearing the 100+ student/teacher characters, environment and mechanics around that and the school scene. Once that is complete, I’d imagine there would be endless opportunities to tweak the student’s non-essential activities and movements together with the environment within the existing school grounds, giving the player an endless amount of small discoveries to make.

The difference is a richer environment as opposed to a larger but more sparse environment like a town.

But the BEST part about this method, is that it COULD be downloadable content or patches available after initial release rather than something to hold up the initial release.